1. Quality assurance and quality control procedures Why?  Users must be satisfied with the quality – the fitness of purpose – of the measurements (method performance studies)  Results from different laboratories must be comparable (laboratory performance studies)  Results must be supplied with realistic estimate of their uncertainty (transparency and traceability)

2. The learning process* Knowledge Hypothesis Experimental design Experiment Models *Environmental Chemistry: measuring and modelling ( WE 11623 ) Chemical functionality (WE 8369) Creativity Data acquisition Extraction of information Synthesis Analysis Method validation Development ISO/IUPAC/AOAC

3. Examples of modelling works at ANCH  Oceanography and Biogeochemistry Optimum multi parameter analysis. To provide information about water mass circulation and to separate mixing from biochemical processes (adebrauw@vub.ac.be)adebrauw@vub.ac.be Compartmental analysis. To extract information from experiments using stable isotopes C, N and Si (melskens@vub.ac.be)melskens@vub.ac.be Factorial design and optimization. To assess the influence of biogeochemical variables on N & C productivity (melskens@vub.ac.be)melskens@vub.ac.be

4. Examples of modelling works at ANCH  System Identification Climate time series analysis. To predict future changes in ecological and climatological variables and to separate human impact from natural fluctuations (federid@vub.ac.be)federid@vub.ac.be  Health and Environment Risk assessment. To assess human and ecological risks associated with the use of pesticides (melskens@vub.ac.be)melskens@vub.ac.be Trace metal contamination. To extract information from measurements using passive sampling devices: Organic vs inorganic metal speciation (melskens@vub.ac.be)melskens@vub.ac.be